Once upon a time there was a Ms. Hairy Woodpecker, enjoying a peaceful morning searching for a tasty insect among the late summer blossoms of a lovely garden.
Nom, nom, nom.
She was minding her own business when suddenly…
You there! You can’t hide in those leaves, Be gone!
…she realized something was coming up behind her. Why it was that silly little chipmunk!
Back away slowly or I’ll have you for lunch!
Ridiculous that this little rodent would think he could beat her to breakfast! Did he think she was a birdbrain?
Backing away, lady! If I close my eyes you’re not there!
Did he think she’d just give up her favorite feeding location to a little nim-nut like him?
She thought not!
And don’t come back here!
And the little chipmunk scurried back down the tree, toute de suite. After all, there were plenty of treats back on the ground where he belonged. He wondered what he had been thinking anyway.
Whew! That was close!
Ms. Hairy Woodpecker went back to enjoying her brunch.
The nerve of some chipmunks…
And then moved on to another favorite location that advertised being chipmunk free.
A couple evenings ago I was watching birds come and go as we were eating dinner. I noticed a flurry of activity, wings fluttering, branches of the crab apple tree bouncing around. It was happening right at the lower left corner of my view out the window.
I wasn’t sure what was happening. So I kept an eye on that spot and soon a male cardinal shot out of the tree. But the bouncing around continued.
It was a baby! I quickly googled whether cardinals had babies this late in the year. Guess what? It said they had between 3 and 4 broods a year, sometimes into mid-September.
Daddy was over at the flat feeder munching on a bunch of sunflower oil seeds. Pretty soon he zoomed back over to the crab apple tree and the youngster who had waited for his return. The flapping of wings resumed.
Daddy fed junior something (I’m guessing chewed up seed) and sat for a moment and then went back to the flat feeder for more.
Eventually daddy cardinal sat on a branch a bit away from the baby. He looked exhausted. He’s molting and he’s tired and it has been raining for days.
I hope mama cardinal is around somewhere to help so that daddy isn’t trying to do all the work alone. Of course for all I know mama is sitting somewhere else with junior #2, feeding and flying and resting and feeding….
I bet mom and dad are glad this is the last bunch of little ones to bring up! They’re probably just like human parents, glad when it’s time for the kids to get on the school bus.
It’s cooler here now, today for example, it’s 60 F and raining. It’s been cooler for several days. Most of the migrating birds have left. But I still have some hummingbirds.
They’ve been fun to watch as they battle over ‘their’ feeder. I thought all summer that I had one pair, a male and a female. How many hummers do you see in this image?
That’s the most I’ve ever seen near our feeder at one time. I hid in the corner of the living room and shot through the window. It’s hard to tell for sure how many you have when they’re flying at each other. This time, they were hungry enough to let each other eat.
They will be gone any day now. This morning I’m pretty sure there are only two. Soon I’ll be putting the feeder away, but I always leave it up for a week or so after I don’t see them anymore. You never know when a straggler will come through town, and they have such a long way to go.
I hope they have safe travels and a warm winter. And that they come back to me next spring.
Last week I was sitting on the deck in early evening. I heard a hummingbird chirping in the beech tree.
There she was, sitting on a branch in between beautifully lit pinkish leaves. She was backlit too.
It seemed as if she had just finished dinner and was sitting, fat and content, in the evening sun.
She spent a lot of time itching her head…
…and staring around, up and down and over there.
She fluffed her feathers and left them wide open in the warming sun.
Her tongue came and went. I wasn’t sure if she was catching insects…
…or just practicing tongue aerobics.
She peed four times while she was there. I guess that sugar water goes right through a girl.
And after perhaps 20 minutes of sitting and enjoying the evening light she took off.
I enjoyed watching her, and took over 300 images. She’s still flitting around the feeder but I expect she’ll be gone soon. I hope I get to visit with her once more before she goes.
Sunday, the middle day of our beautiful 3 day holiday weekend, I took Penny to a park.
Earlier in the day I had watched my favorite television show, Sunday Morning, which was filled with stories about September 11, 2001 and the fact that this year will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of that day.
It hardly seems possible that twenty-five years have gone by. I remember the details of where I was and what I was doing when that attack happened like it was just last week.
I remember hearing it first from one of the women in my department whose teen daughter was home watching TV.
She said her daughter called and while they were talking a second plane had hit. She was watching the news. We figured it was just footage of the same plane, being shown over and over, like the news does.
We figured it was a small, private plane and a terrible accident.
As the story grew my staff became more agitated and scared. My job was to keep everybody calm.
I was calling my husband who worked nights and was home asleep. He wasn’t picking up the phone. I knew he would want to know so I kept trying. Our answering machine kept asking if I wanted to leave a message. I finally did.
I told him to turn on the TV.
One woman in my department was becoming hysterical because she couldn’t get in touch with her husband who, it turns out, worked for the federal government. By then we knew the Pentagon had been hit. I thought he was working in DC. We called someone to come and get her.
Other employees who felt they needed to be at home were allowed to go.
Back then there was no TV at work, no social media, no internet at all for us to keep up with the news but family and friends called and emailed with updates. No further work was accomplished that day.
But that was OK.
We drove home that afternoon listening to our car radios, still unable to grasp the entirety of what had happened.
And though it seems like it was yesterday, there are adults in our world today that were toddlers, babies, or not even born yet who don’t have these memories, have only the stories told to them by older folk.
I imagine it feels to them something like Pearl Harbor feels to me. I know Sunday, December 7, 1941 was important. I know it changed the world, but I don’t feel it insideof me the same way I feel September 11th.
Last Sunday as Penny and I walked around a lake, enjoying the brilliant blue sky I remembered the events of that September blue sky Tuesday morning and how it changed the world.
And I hope we never see such a thing like it again. But in my heart I know that some future generation will have it’s own moment that changes everything and they will, someday, walk and contemplate history just like we do now.
As you know I have a lot of birds in my backyard. Mostly because I feed them. They are not unlike Penny in their affection for me based on their feeder fullness quotient analysis.
This week this rather cheeky yet uncertain little guy showed up.
He hopped along the deck railing, back and forth, seeming unfazed by the bird traffic all around him.
He picked at the husks of seeds left behind by previous diners.
He stared at me.
And then, eventually, he flew off.
I’m thinking he’s a juvenile red breasted grosbeak. Maybe male, given the yellowish breast? I’m using the logic that red headed woodpeckers have brown heads when they’re juveniles.
But it could be a female too, they have a yellowish cast to their chest feathers.
Mom’s super busy and she’s not paying attention to me (par for the course lately) so I figured I’d check in with you guys.
In front of one of my gardens. Mom makes me do this every. single. morning.
Life is going along like normal around here which is to say boring. Mom says boring can be a good thing. She says I should be glad both she and daddy are home with me all the time now.
Sometimes mom and I hang out on the porch.
I suppose.
Mom tried to get me to like the pool. I did not.
She says I’m going back to school in a week or so and I better remember all the things I know and not goof off this year. She’s says we’re both gonna learn some obedience.
I’d rather spend time at Katie’s park. Or any park.
Huh. It’s about time mom learned some obedience. And I stand my ground and repeat — there better be lots of treats. And the good kind too, not just kibble from my supper. She doesn’t think I know she does that. I’m a sheltie. I know everything.
Mom and me practicing stuff at Katie’s park one evening.
Anyway, mom’s been taking me to parks and stuff. I’m not totally ignored.
At one of my parks!
But geeze…I feel like I need a real adventure!
After my Friday evening group walkat another of my parks!
Your suggestions are truly appreciated.
I’ll just catch a snooze while I wait for your ideas.
